higher education, social class and the mobilisation of capitals: recognising and playing the game -...

A recent study of graduates showed:

Of people graduating between 2009 and 2011: 58% of graduates from state school background

found a graduate level job, compared to 74% from independent school sector AND

Those finding work with 1st class degree had £3,000 lower starting salary if from state school, or £2,000 for 2:1 degree

Why is this?

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Higher Education, Social Class and the Mobilisation of Capitals: Recognising and playing the game

Dr Richard WallerUWE Bristol

HEA session at University of Surrey 26 March 2014

Co-authors of the paper upon which this session is based:Prof Ann-Marie Bathmaker (University of Birmingham) and

Dr Nicola Ingram (University of Bath)

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Questions...

What factors determine the type of career our graduates enter?

What can they do to influence this? What can we do to influence it?

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Overview of session

The Paired Peers Project Changing graduate recruitment markets: ‘the

opportunity trap’ Playing the ‘game’: using Bourdieu’s

conceptual tools to examine processes of capital accumulation

Knowing what ‘the game is’ Generating capitals through extra-curricular

activities (ECAs) Conclusions

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The Paired Peers projectLongitudinal study of students through degree studies (2010-

2013). Aims and objectives: To compare systematically experiences of pairs of students

from different social classes, studying the same subjects at two universities in the same city1: The traditional 'elite' University of Bristol (UoB)2: The 'new' more teaching-focused UWE Bristol

To identify the various kinds of capital students brought to their university experience, and to explore the capitals acquired over the 3 years

To examine differing processes of capital acquisition, enhancement and mobilisation by students that affects future employment prospects and social positioning

Does class still matter?

In essence then we explore here:

1. How social class impacts on educational opportunities and achievements at university

2. The processes by which it does

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Pierre Bourdieu’s forms of capital – a very brief overview

Bourdieu talks of forms of ‘capital’: Economic – what you earn (or own) Social – who you know Cultural – what you know

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Brown: The opportunity trap

Phil Brown and colleagues challenge the generally held notion of a straightforward ‘graduate premium’, the discourse underpinning models of student self-finance etc

Instead they now identify a ‘global war for talent’ for elite careers

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The war for talent in changing graduate recruitment markets

Need for ‘positional advantage’ within the graduate recruitment market‘(W)hile we can all be encouraged to do our best, we cannot all be the best’ (Brown 2003:144).

‘cashing in one’s opportunities requires access to scarce credentials, jobs and networks’ (Brown 2003:150).

‘Ranking tournaments’ - social structures of competition for prestigious graduate careers- switch in emphasis from meritocracy to market place

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Global war continued…

Changing recruitment criteria (Brown and Hesketh 2004)

paper qualifications just the preliminary stage first class degree from a first class university

needed, and first class CV and ‘soft skills’ too Increasing emphasis on ‘soft’ skills at the

expense of ‘technical’ ones (Grugulis and Vincent (2009) - ‘‘good’ employees display the ‘right’ skills in acceptable and accepted ways’ (2009:600)

Questions...

How true do you think this is for your graduates today?

Do you think this has changed since your own time as a student?

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‘Playing the game’ – using Bourdieu’s conceptual tools

The need to acquire and mobilise resources in the form of ‘capitals’ that are valued in a particular ‘field’ of social action (e.g. graduate careers)

Agents are positioned in the field in dominant and dominated positions as a result of the capitals possessed

Conscious and unconscious ‘strategising’ by ‘agents’ in order to position themselves favourably (or otherwise!)

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Having a ‘feel’ for the game

‘You can use the analogy of the game in order to say that a set of people take part in a rule-bound activity, an activity which, without necessarily being the product of obedience to rules, obeys certain regularities...Whoever wants to win this game, appropriate the stakes, catch the ball… must have a feel for the game, that is, a feel for the necessity and the logic of the game’ (Bourdieu 1990:64)

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Knowing ‘what the game is’

Our participants usually demonstrated a clear awareness of ‘the game’ of obtaining a much sought after graduate position. E.g. Garry:Going back a few years it seemed to be, a degree in anything is you know, but you got a 2:1 was a statement in itself about someone, (but now)…more and more people do go on to higher education and have degrees, whether almost that seems to, perhaps unfairly, water down what a degree is or how it’s regarded. I don’t know. It’s almost like sort of…market forces being a bit like, if there’s more of something that something becomes less valuable, like money in inflation. (Garry: W/C, UoB)

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But it’s not straightforward...

I’ve realised that, especially when it comes to university, that where you went is a lot more important than what you did. And there’s people now that are doing… like they’ve got the internships that I’d love and they’re doing sort of Sociology degrees and something like that!

(Harvey: W/C, UoB)

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Middle-class advantage

I’m sure my networking helped as well, I’m absolutely convinced...I have one family member in an investment bank in London who is a distant, distant relative who my dad put me in contact with and said “oh yeah do you know such and such is in…”. So I met with him in London, which was a useful contact, and if I’d got to the final stages of the interview process there that probably would have been quite helpful. As regards other contacts….(I)...worked for my mum and dad’s accountant...spent a few days with him, whack(ed) it on the CV and they think “oh look he’s done some accounting” – tick box. (Nathan: M/C, UoB)

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Mobilising capitals through extra-curricular activities

Examples of activities pursued included: Sports Leisure societies – debating, reading,

photography Political societies Subject societies (e.g. Engineering)

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Active generation of capitals

I’m...carrying on really, trying to do well in academic side of it but also keep up like the sports and stuff, because that’s…so many people have good academic skills and academic qualifications. And also you’re up against pretty much a lot of people from other countries as well, because I always forget it’s not just like English unis.(Francesca: M/C, UWE)

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Active generation of capitals

Positions of responsibility adopted by the cohort included being on society committees, and also becoming Secretary of a sports club (Harriet, UWE, m/c), Captain of a sports team (Francesca, UWE, m/c), Vice President of the subject Society (Jennifer, UoB, m/c) and President of a subject society (Melissa, UoB, w/c)

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Instinctive generation of capitals

Jack carries on where his parents left off:Oh just making sure we’ve got something that we can have for the future, like windsurfing, surfing, trumpet, climbing, I’ve done so many activities when I was little it’s just stupid. And then so now my sister’s now working all round the world doing windsurf teaching and stuff like this, and I’ve taught break dancing and stuff like that. So kind of setting us up for the future rather than just giving us PS3s. (Jack, m/c, UWE)

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Barriers to the generation of capitals through ECA (1)

I love to meet new people so it was a bit disappointing…but this year unfortunately I couldn’t really afford to join any societies or anything. But I have been playing football and stuff with my mates just down the local park and stuff…

(Henry, w/c, UWE)

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Barriers to the generation of capitals through ECA (2)

I physically don’t have time…I’d love to get involved but I physically can’t. Which is another frustrating thing then because I feel like I am not making the most out of my time here.

(Zoe, w/c, UoB)

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Engaging in activities unlikely to generate ‘valuable’ capitals

There’s like four of us in my flat especially that get on really well, we just sit in the kitchen, make food together, have a chat. It’s nice to like catch up after like a day, because we all go like our separate ways in the day and then come back. It’s quite like a little family.

(Jade, w/c, UoB)

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Engaging in activities unlikely to generate ‘valuable’ capitals

Working-class young men spent time playing X-box

Sariah (w/c, female, UWE) explained that she spent her time ‘going out clubbing and stuff and, you know, shopping, every girl likes to shop.’

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Conclusions: Playing the ‘employability game’

Uneven or unequal playing field, but also, ‘the game has changed’

Disadvantages in not being ready for the game – lack of pre-disposition towards capital accumulation

Those in dominant and dominated positions likely to remain so based on their capacity to generate and exploit additional capital

Reproduction of m/c advantage particularly tenacious over privileged access to capitals (e.g. through economic support of parents; or through valuable forms of cultural capital; or through privileged networks etc)

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Conclusions: Implications It isn’t just habitus preventing w/c students from

mobilising capitals in the same way as m/c peers, but structural barriers restricting access to them. Identifying barriers highlights areas where institutions could and should intervene, e.g. the need:- for resources such as time and finances- for social capital – connections - to develop capacities to mobilise these resources effectively

Bourdieu’s conceptual tools provide a means of surfacing patterns of inequalities, providing the possibility of challenging and changing established practices

Further information

Visit our website: www.bristol.ac.uk/pairedpeers

See our recent paper BJSE: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01

425692.2013.816041

Or email me: [email protected]

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